Gas turbine engines employing an open rotor design architecture are known. A turbofan engine operates on the principle that a central gas turbine core drives a bypass fan, the fan being located at a radial location between a nacelle of the engine and the engine core. An open rotor engine instead operates on the principle of having the bypass fan located outside of the engine nacelle. This permits the use of larger fan blades able to act upon a larger volume of air than for a turbofan engine, and thereby improves propulsive efficiency over conventional engine designs.
Optimum performance has been found with an open rotor design having a fan provided by two contra-rotating rotor assemblies, each rotor assembly carrying an array of airfoil blades located outside the engine nacelle. As used herein, “contra-rotational relationship” means that the blades of the first and second rotor assemblies are arranged to rotate in opposing directions to each other. Typically the blades of the first and second rotor assemblies are arranged to rotate about a common axis in opposing directions, and are axially spaced apart along that axis. For example, the respective blades of the first rotor assembly and second rotor assembly may be co-axially mounted and spaced apart, with the blades of the first rotor assembly configured to rotate clockwise about the axis and the blades of the second rotor assembly configured to rotate counter-clockwise about the axis (or vice versa). In appearance, the fan blades of an open rotor engine may somewhat resemble the propeller blades of a conventional turboprop engine.
The use of contra-rotating rotor assemblies provides technical challenges in transmitting power from the power turbine to drive the blades of the respective two rotor assemblies in opposing directions.
It would be desirable to provide an open rotor propulsion system utilizing a single rotating propeller assembly analogous to a traditional bypass fan which reduces the complexity of the design, yet yields a level of propulsive efficiency comparable to contra-rotating propulsion designs with a significant weight and length reduction.